The University of Arizona Poetry Center, housed in University of Arizona’s College of Humanities, is thrilled to announce the completion of fundraising for three new endowed events in the Poetry Center’s acclaimed Reading and Lecture Series, now in its 65th year. These newly endowed programs include the H.D./Bryher Residency for LGBTQ Poets, the Alison Hawthorne Deming Residency for Environmental Writers, and the Ofelia Zepeda Reading for Indigenous Poets. The readings are added as an action of the Poetry Center’s latest strategic direction, the Belonging Initiative.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring these new programs to life, and to formalize the Poetry Center’s commitments to communities that have been enriching the cultural and civic landscape of Southern Arizona for centuries. Part of Tucson’s cultural magic stems from a rich and plural landscape of practitioners and participants. With the help of our supporters, we are excited to celebrate the ongoing work of these communities in newly compelling, visible, and ongoing ways,” said Poetry Center Executive Director Tyler Meier.
The first program to launch will be the H.D/Bryer Residency for LGBTQ Poets. Named for the modernist poet t (H.D.) and her longtime companion Bryher, the program will celebrate the work of LGBTQ poets and their essential contributions to the landscape of contemporary poetry. The reading of the first resident poets will take place on Jan. 15 2026 at the Poetry Center at 7pm, and feature award-winning poets Cameron Awkward-Rich and Franny Choi. This residency has been made possible with support from Tim Schaffner and Anne Maley-Schaffner.
with Cameron Awkward-Rich and Franny Choi on Thursday January 15, 2026 at the Poetry Center.
The Alison Hawthorne Deming Residency for Environmental Writers is named for the former Poetry Center Director and long-time University of Arizona Creative Writing faculty member, whose poetry and creative nonfiction continue to investigate the intersection of our shared environmental challenges and the possibilities of human imagination. To launch in the fall of 2026, this residency is possible with support from the Borchard Center on Literary Arts and will feature leading voices with the same intellectual and aesthetic focus.
The Ofelia Zepeda Reading for Indigenous Writers galvanizes the Poetry Center’s many years of partnership with Zepeda and former U of A faculty member Larry Evers through their Poetics and Politics series at the Poetry Center over the last three decades. Designed to annually feature Indigenous poets in the Reading and Lecture Series, this reading is named for the Tohono O’odham poet, Regents Professor, linguist, and language activist Ofelia Zepeda and will launch in the fall of 2026.
The Poetry Center launched an annual Reading and Lecture Series in 1961. For 65 years, the series has brought more than 1,000 poets to the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona and established the Poetry Center as a leading institution of contemporary poetry. Our robust reading series is preserved as digital recordings on Voca (voca.arizona.edu), the Poetry Center’s premiere audiovisual archive containing materials that exist nowhere else. Recognized as one of the most important archives of its kind, Voca is web-based, fully transcribed, free, and ever-growing. This living digital archive helps tell the story of poetry over the last 65 years and preserves it for generations to come.